Category Archives: Humor

“What are Natives like? What are the traits, habits, strengths and weaknesses that unite this resilient and beautiful group of people? That’s really what’s at the heart of the ‘Natives be like’ meme and its spinoffs. The common ground where Cherokee, Navajo, Lakota, Mohawk and all the other flavors of Native are united by chuckling at the same picture. Wherever you go in Indian country, it seems, you’ll find Natives who primp for the pow wow and Natives who put beads on everything.” ICTMN

“No, it’s not good grammar, but it makes for some funny sight gags. Some brilliant, some (possibly) insulting, but all containing at least a kernel of truth that justifies the humor. Don’t be embarrassed to laugh! Maybe not all Natives be like these, maybe you yourself don’t be like these… but odds are you have a second cousin twice removed who very much does be like these.”

“The coyote is complex and a devious powerful teacher, hence the title ‘Trickster.’ Some tribes call him Nanapush, some Inktomi, some see the deceiver as tarantula… According to ICTMN’s Dr. Coyote, Think of him as a Native Bart Simpson, you can learn how to do things the right way from doing the opposite of what he does. Dr. Coyote usually speaks out of all sides of his mouth, with his forked tongue, or all at once.” ICTMN

Dr. Coyote. Photo-ICTMN

Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in his or her moccasins. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a mile away and you have their moccasins.

“Artists Steven Paul Judd and Bunky Echo-Hawk are friends and leaders on the Indian art scene. (Judd in fact cites Echo-Hawk as one of his biggest influences.) They’re both adept at creating artwork that mashes up pop culture and Native culture, and they’re masters of quick-hit visual puns. Their work can be wry commentary on serious, painful subjects — other times, it’s just fun and funny.” ICTMN

NDN Hulk Gets Mad When Treaties Are Broken by Steven Paul Judd. ICTMN

Monsters Tribal College by Bunky Echo-Hawk.

Native humor. ICTMN

“Humor is widely used by Indians to deal with life. Indian gatherings are marked by laughter and jokes, many directed at the horrors of history, at the continuing impact of colonization, and at the biting knowledge that living as an exile in one’s own land necessitates. . . . Certainly the time frame we presently inhabit has much that is shabby and tricky to offer; and much that needs to be treated with laughter and ironic humor”.~Paula Gunn Allen ~(1939–2008)

O’siyo. Charlie Hill is an Oneida-Mohawk-Indian, and a famous comedian. He feels fortunate to have “achieved the American dream” but realizes that for many of his fellow Native Americans the dream is still out of reach. Charlie has helped diminish the stereotypes of Indians through his style and humor, and focuses on issues of human dignity and spirit. To many American Indians, Charlie Hill is a true hero.

“Native American comedian Charlie Hill says he’s living the American dream.

Actually, make that the “indigenous dream,” which he prefers to call it.

In many ways, Hill’s comedy is about how native people weren’t even allowed to have an American dream. Hill, from the Oneida tribe of Wisconsin, quips in one of his routines: “We used to be from New York. We had a little real estate problem.”

Hill made his TV debut on The Richard Pryor Show in the 1970s, and has been on Late Night with David Letterman and The Tonight Show. While he may not be very well known to the general public, to Native Americans, he’s a hero.

Take the fact that Native Americans have been the source of endless mockery, he says. “They make fun of the way we dance, we sing, our drum, our names, our religion, our rituals — you name it.”

So one of Hill’s dreams was to turn that humor around. “My whole thing is to get people to laugh with us, not at us,” he says.

Hollywood stereotypes have offered Hill a deep well from which to draw jokes. He re-creates the dialogue from old Westerns, but always gives the Indians the last laugh.

But he also stresses that it wouldn’t have been possible for him without help from other comedians, as well as other prominent Native Americans like the late writer Vine Deloria Jr., and singer Buffy Sainte-Marie.

He still travels to Los Angeles for work, but his home is on the Oneida reservation in Wisconsin…”

Read (and listen to ) his entire uplifting story at NPR.org.

See segments of Charlie Hill’s comedy on LOL Comedy TV

“I feel strongly that laughter is one of the ultimate forms of quick healing.”~Charlie Hill~

“He who has the courage to laugh is almost as much a master of the world as he who is ready to die.” ~Giacomo Leopardi~